Effects and side effects of European Union assistance on the former Soviet republics

15.12.2016 (16:18)

Paper by Karina Shyrokykh selected to be included in an article collection showcasing research on the Soviet Union

A paper by Karina Shyrokykh, doctoral candidate of the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies in Munich, has been selected to be included in an article collection by Routledge/Taylor & Francis Online showcasing research on the Soviet Union, to mark 25 years since its collapse. Karina's paper "Effects and side effects of European Union assistance on the former Soviet republics", which recently has been published in "Democratization" (Jul 2016), will be available free to access online until the end of June 2017.

On the 26th December 1991 the Soviet Union came to an end, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and the Russian flag was raised in its place. To mark 25 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union Taylor & Francis Online have compiled an extensive research collection, containing 150 research articles. Karina's paper explores effects and side effects of European Union assistance on the former Soviet republics.

Abstract

Since the early 1990s the European Union (EU) has been the largest donor to the post-Soviet states. In the last decade it more than doubled development assistance to the region. One of the major purposes of assistance is human rights promotion. At the same time, it is still an open question whether, and under what conditions, assistance can improve human rights in recipient countries. This study applies time-series cross-section (TSCS) analysis to identify effects of external assistance. Using data from 12 post-Soviet states over 20 years, I show that conditions under which states are more likely to display a positive effect are high state capacity and political conditionality attached to economic cooperation agreements. Whereas, when state capacity is lower, assistance might cause a slight deterioration of the human rights situation. In hybrid regimes, assistance is associated with negative effects, indicating that external assistance might induce deterioration of human rights in such regimes.